The Perfect Party: September 2011

The Reed College alums we’d like to see at our table.

8/19/2011 at 1:00pm
Published in the September 2011 issue of
Portland Monthly

GARYSNYDER ’51 The Beat bard acquired the name “Leitswics” on a vision quest during which he communed with a benevolent light switch. His spirit guardian landed him a room at a raucous coed house in Sellwood—possibly America’s archetypal counterculture crash pad. May the light switch bless our repast!

THEDOYLEOWL ’13 This three-foot concrete statue began life as a simple lawn ornament, until a gang of Doyle dorm pranksters stole it. Every few years the coveted Owl turns up: suspended over bridges, in Indonesia, or even in Tears for Fears music videos. Whoever has the Owl, please bring it for our centerpiece.

BARBARAEHRENREICH ’63 Ehrenreich put society’s problems under her microscope in books like Nickel and Dimed—maybe because she spent her Reed years staring through an actual microscope. Her senior thesis? “Electrochemical oscillations of the silicon anode.” Ms. Ehrenreich, please give us a reading from your, uh, more recent work.

ROSEFRIEDMAN ’30 (TRANSFFERRED) This staunchly libertarian economist attended Reed for two years before fleeing. Rose, help yourself to our veggies. They’re free-market!

IGORVAMOS ’93 Vamos—one half of pro prank duo the Yes Men—honed his mayhem at Reed. Greatest hits: marching a small army into a downtown Gulf War protest where they vomited red, white, and blue; and switching every Naito Parkway street sign to read “Malcolm X Blvd.” Who knows what might find its way into our punch bowl?